The Kotter + 1 process of organisational behaviour for change
The world of business is moving faster than ever. Technology usurps itself on an almost daily basis. Organisations need to compete harder than ever before to stay ahead of the market. Technology, rules and regulations, changing consumer habits and competitive pressures combine to make the need for change both necessary and inevitable. Yet people resist change. They fear it.
In this article, you’ll learn how organisational behaviour can engage people in transformational change. Employee buy-in refers to the commitment of employees to a company’s strategic goals, which is crucial for executing strategies and enhancing organisational performance.
Organisational behaviour in the leadership of change
While there are many change management strategies, most have their foundations in the eight-step model developed by Dr. John Kotter and described in his book, “Leading Change”. However, following this model will not be enough to create successful and sustainable change. Your organisation will need to adopt and adapt the organisational behaviours required to engage employees in change throughout the process. Employee buy-in and engagement can significantly enhance company performance by fostering creativity, innovative ideas, and improving overall business outcomes.
How to Build a Strong Foundation for Change
Building a strong foundation for change is crucial for successful team buy-in. This involves creating a clear vision, emphasising the value of teamwork and collaboration, and giving team members ownership and autonomy.
Share Your Vision and Goals
Sharing your vision and goals with your team is essential for building a strong foundation for change. This involves clearly communicating the reasons behind the change, the expected outcomes, and the role each team member will play in achieving the desired results. By sharing your vision and goals, you can create a sense of purpose and direction, which is critical for team buy-in.
When sharing your vision and goals, make sure to:
- Be clear and concise in your communication.
- Use language that is easy to understand.
- Provide specific examples and illustrations to help team members visualise the desired outcomes.
- Encourage team members to ask questions and provide feedback.
By sharing your vision and goals, you can create a sense of excitement and anticipation among team members, which can help to build momentum and support for the change.
Emphasise the Value of Teamwork and Collaboration
Emphasising the value of teamwork and collaboration is critical for building a strong foundation for change. This involves recognising that team members have different strengths, skills, and perspectives, and that by working together, they can achieve more than they could alone.
When emphasising the value of teamwork and collaboration, make sure to:
- Recognise and reward team members for their contributions.
- Encourage team members to share their ideas and perspectives.
- Provide opportunities for team members to work together on projects and tasks.
- Foster a sense of camaraderie and teamwork among team members.
By emphasising the value of teamwork and collaboration, you can create a sense of unity and shared purpose among team members, which can help to build trust and support for the change.
Give Team Members Ownership and Autonomy
Giving team members ownership and autonomy is essential for building a strong foundation for change. This involves providing team members with the freedom to make decisions, take risks, and solve problems, while also providing the necessary support and resources.
When giving team members ownership and autonomy, make sure to:
- Provide clear goals and objectives.
- Give team members the freedom to make decisions and take risks.
- Provide the necessary support and resources.
- Encourage team members to take ownership of their work and outcomes.
By giving team members ownership and autonomy, you can create a sense of empowerment and motivation among team members, which can help to build support and commitment to the change.
By building a strong foundation for change, you can create a sense of purpose, direction, and unity among team members, which can help to build support and momentum for the change. Remember to share your vision and goals, emphasise the value of teamwork and collaboration, and give team members ownership and autonomy to create a strong foundation for change.
Earning Employee Buy-In for Transformational Change
Step 1: Create urgency
You must create a sense of urgency by gaining support, which compels the entire organisation to want change. Discussing poor sales numbers or chatting about your competition won’t achieve this.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Identify threats and opportunities. From these, create future visions.
- Encourage open and honest discussion. Kick-start the dialogue in team meetings and on the company intranet.
- Engage your employees, and invite other stakeholders to participate – customers and suppliers, for example.
Step 2: Form a powerful coalition
Lead from the front, with your senior leaders and team leaders involved in influencing employees of the need for change. Identify change sponsors throughout your organisation from all sources, and use these influencers to build momentum for change.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Forget about traditional hierarchies, and identify your organisation’s natural leaders at every level.
- Build a team of influencers, people from all divisions and with diversity of skills.
- Accept your team will have weak spots, and strive to position the team to cover them or remove them.
Step 3: Create the vision for change
A clear vision of the future is needed to help all stakeholders understand why there is a need for change, and the ambitions of the change project.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Think in terms of organisational values when creating your change goals.
- Ensure that every member of your change coalition understands these values and goals, and create a common future vision description.
- Ensure that all members of the change coalition can speak enthusiastically about the future vision and change project with a common voice.
Step 4: Communicate your future vision
Too often, organisations tell their people that things are going to change, but never tell them why, how, or the benefits of change. The reasons for change and its benefits will need to be communicated loud and often. The message will have a lot of competition from ‘business-as-usual’ communications, and for change to be successful it must be a priority. Insights from a Harvard Business School professor highlight the importance of communication in strategy execution.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Be open about the change, encouraging people to talk at every opportunity.
- Ensure your employees are versed in tackling concerns.
- Focus all communications on the change, from performance reviews and training to operational processes.
Step 5: Remove resistance to change
There are many obstacles to change. The major one, and the one that could bring change to its knees, is employee resistance. Employees especially in the age of globalised markets and automation, can see “change” as code for “downsizing”. As a leader, it’s important to reassure your team that this isn’t what you mean and be able to speak to their fears. If this is what you mean by change then you want to address it head-on because there is likely to be further demoralisation. You’ll need to structure your team to maximise its potential, employing change leaders and setting roles and responsibilities in line with their skillsets. However, there are other things that you will need to do. One crucial step is to encourage employees to express their challenges and provide solutions, which fosters communication and collaboration within the team.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Be passionate about the change and possibilities for all.
- Ensure your leaders take a persuasive and not authoritarian approach to managing change.
- Invite employees to put forward their ideas, and reward people for helping to make change happen.
- Be prepared to restructure your organisation and its compensation schemes to come into line with the future vision.
- Encourage resistors to see the benefits of change, and act quickly to encourage their exit if it becomes clear there is no turning of their attitudes.
Step 6: Generate short-term wins
Aiming for a single big goal can be daunting and demoralisng. You never seem to make any real progress. It’s a little like setting a target to quit smoking, or lose weight, or write a book. Instead, set smaller short-term milestones on the way to the future vision (e.g. cut out that first cigarette, lose two pounds in the first week, write a chapter a week, etc.). Make the targets stretching but achievable, so that they have a high chance of success. Integrating employee recognition into the project timeline through regular check-ins, meetings, and feedback sessions can further enhance motivation and contribute to overall project success.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Open milestone-setting to all employees: make it a personal goal as well as a team goal.
- Encourage discussion of the benefits of achieving each milestone, and let employees identify potential barriers.
Step 7: Consolidate wins and build out the change
Celebrate the achievement of each milestone, but never rest on your laurels. You have completed another stepping stone toward the future vision. You now need to build on this, by learning from mistakes made, identifying what went well, and incorporating employee recognition to reinforce the cycle of change.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Be open with all stakeholders, and encourage them to put forward their views and ideas.
- Celebrate those wins in small ways, reinforcing the cycle.
- Set the next goals by consensus.
- Be flexible in your approach, and identify change leaders as they become apparent through the process of change.
Step 8: Set the changes in corporate culture for employee retention
When you reach the future vision you set yourself, you must ensure that new processes, systems, and ways of thinking and working become central to your corporate culture. Ensure that the benefits of change are evident in every corner of your organisation, and that your leaders remain supportive of the change. Employee buy-in is essential for achieving the company’s success, as it fosters commitment to strategic goals and enhances organisational performance.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Discuss the change in team meetings, one-to-ones, board meetings, customer presentations… in fact, at every opportunity available.
- Make the new values central to the hiring process.
- Reward key members, change sponsors and employee influencers publicly.
Now that your change project has reached its successful conclusion, what next?
Step 9: Rinse and repeat
The only constant in business is change. As I discussed in the opening paragraph, technology, rules and regulations, changing consumer habits and competitive pressures combine to make the need for change both necessary and inevitable. The world of business is an ever-changing landscape. Just because you have completed a largescale transformational change successfully, does not mean that further change is unnecessary. Distributing tasks and responsibilities within the team is crucial to adapt to these changes. By doing so, managers can remove all the responsibility from a single employee, allowing the entire team to collaborate effectively and enhance overall performance.
Organisational behaviours needed:
- Be open to ideas from the floor – your people and salespeople will prove key to continuous change.
- Provide a path to employee empowerment – communicate openly, provide opportunity for improvement, share strategies, offer support, and be appreciative.
- Develop cross-cultural understanding.
- Ensure that leaders and managers encourage feedback and behavioural explanations.
